⚡️⚡️NEWS FLASH ⚡️⚡️We are just about to hit the 1 year anniversary since the #LismoreFloods & just 1 person has been offered a buyback leaving 6999 people in limbo. My son & I were rescued from partners home (pic below). My partner has not even received a phone call #nswpol #fail pic.twitter.com/duPLUb7bY7
— Eddie Lloyd (@worldzonfire) February 19, 2023
The Guardian, 20 February 2023:
In February the hills and valleys of the New South Wales northern rivers are green and lush and fertile in the late summer sun. There is brightness in the madly proliferating tropical flora, radiance in the golden hour of the evening.
In the towns the mud has gone, mostly, and the smell too has faded; a semblance of normality returned to the main streets. As the foliage has returned, the devastation of the 2022 floods is more hidden now; the scale of what happened. The people who are changed.
As the anniversary of the disaster approaches, along with the cyclone season, for those left in the flood’s wake the impact is still unfolding. When the flood waters receded a year ago, for many, the disaster was only beginning.
“You could hazard a guess that something like 15 to 20,000 people were impacted,” says Professor James Bennett Levy from the University of Sydney Centre for Rural Health. “I would say there’s been huge collective trauma as well as individual trauma.”
“If I am doing a community event,” says Naomi Vaotuua, recovery and resilience officer for the Red Cross, “I will literally have grown men crying in my arms because it’s a cloudy day and they thought they were doing alright but they have been triggered.”
Kerry Pritchard, coordinator of recovery Hub 2484 in Murwillumbah, says: “I guess what is surfacing now is more residual complex trauma. We feel like we are still very much in the middle of it, at the coalface of supporting people. That is both in terms of rebuilding in a physical sense and also healing from that traumatic event.”
The northern rivers floods were Australia’s biggest natural disaster since Cyclone Tracy in 1974. It was the second-costliest event in the world for insurers in 2022, and the most expensive disaster in Australian history. Many residents had found premiums unaffordable and had no insurance at all.
The Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation (NRRC), funded by the federal and NSW governments, is currently assessing over 6,000 flood-impacted residences for buyback, raising or retrofit.
A survey released this month by Southern Cross University revealed that nine months after the event, at the end of 2022, almost 52% of flood victims were living in the shells of homes that had flooded; 26% were living in temporary accommodation such as caravans, sheds or pods, or with friends or family; 18% were living in insecure accommodation such as tents or temporary rentals; and 4% were no longer living in the region.
The departure of thousands of locals is one of the things that broke the heart of city councillor and executive director of Resilient Lismore, Elly Bird. “They are disconnected from their community and the people they went through that experience with and disconnected from our recovery journey and support. They are probably having a hard time,” Bird says.
Hanabeth Luke, senior lecturer in science and engineering at Southern Cross University, and one of the researchers behind the survey, said she was “shocked to see the low, low levels of mental health. Twenty percent of people said they were coping with the stresses and challenges of recovery and 60% said they were not coping.”
It is the housing uncertainty causing mental health strain, Luke says; the stress of “not being able to move forward, making do without a clear plan”. People live in substandard dwellings while they wait on government assessments or insurance payouts, not knowing whether to fix a house or if they might get a buyback. People camp out in caravans outside dilapidated abandoned houses, houses they are still paying mortgages and rates for. Families squeeze into a single motel room where they are not allowed to cook or have their pets.
Up until last month, the Koori Kitchen was still serving around around 700 free meals a day at Browns Creek car park in Lismore, says Koori Mail general manager Naomi Moran. It was forced to close as the council wanted the car spaces back to help support local business recovery.
These things take their toll.
“What has been found is that the more you were likely to have been scared of injury or death, the higher the likelihood of PTSD,” says Bennett Levy. “Similarly, the more extensive the inundation the more likelihood of significant mental health issues. If we go back to the data we can say that the people who are displaced from home for more than six months are at very high risk of PTSD.”
Pritchard sees the data borne out in real life. “A year out and people are just worn down, they’re exhausted, they’re losing hope and just can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. We’re seeing a lot of suicidal ideation.” People who have always worked hard and supported themselves find themselves having to ask for help, she says. “There are a lot of feelings of shame and impotency around that.”
Those who could afford insurance are now coming to the end of the 52 weeks of temporary accommodation paid for by their insurers. For those locals, there is anxiety about whether they will get into the 11 pod villages built by Resilience NSW across the region. The villages aim to house 1,800 people for up to three years. Another 300 people are still in emergency accommodation…..
Read the full article here.
Southern Cross University, New Southern Cross study reveals ongoing housing and mental health challenges for flood-affected, 7 February 2023:
A new Southern Cross University survey has shown almost 50 per cent of Northern Rivers flood victims were still displaced nine months after the devastating floods and landslides of 2022.
The survey, conducted by Southern Cross researchers in the latter months of last year, aimed to gain a better understanding of the ongoing struggles faced by flood-affected communities. The results paint a stark picture.
Of the 800 survey respondents, 52 percent were back living in a home that had flooded, while 26 per cent were either living in temporary accommodation such as caravans, sheds or pods, or with friends and family. A staggering 18 per cent of people reported they were living in ‘other’ insecure or crisis accommodation such as tents or temporary rentals and four per cent were no longer living in the region.
One fifth of respondents reported it was hard to find out what support was available to them, suggesting insufficient variety in information channels used to communicate with flood-affected residents. Additionally, nearly one third of insured survey respondents reported being ineligible for an insurance payout, and many cited excessive bureaucracy as a major barrier to accessing funding for recovery efforts. Survey respondents had to fill out an average 6-8 forms each to receive any financial assistance.
The Insurance Council of Australia estimates the cost of the 2022 east coast floods to be around AUD $5 billion in insurance damages. The Southern Cross survey results showed that while the most common cost of the flood was between $201,000-$500,000 to each respondent, the most common maximum amount received at the time of completing the survey was a tenth of that, at $21,000-$50,000.
"The findings of this survey are a sobering reminder of the ongoing impact of the floods on the Northern Rivers community," said lead researcher Dr Hanabeth Luke.
“Flooding has affected dozens of rural and urban communities around the country and continues to do so, most recently in Western Australia. There are important learnings from this that can guide us and others to be better prepared next time,” she said.
Elly Bird, Executive Director of Resilient Lismore – a community organisation and partner in the survey – said "just 20 per cent of respondents report they are coping with the stresses and challenges of recovering from the floods, and more than 80 per cent agree that community hubs have been essential to their recovery.
“Nearly 60 per cent of respondents still need help with access to tradespeople, and more than 45 per cent require access to building materials. This is holding up the recovery and needs to be addressed urgently.”
Many respondents reported not ‘being able to plan’ as a significant challenge.
The majority (96 per cent) of survey respondents saw community preparedness as most important for mitigating future events, with engineering solutions receiving a lower level of support than all other options.
"This study is a crucial tool in the ongoing efforts of our community to build back. Tapping into the experiences of those affected will help shape services and streamline processes and hold us in better stead for future events,” said Ms Bird.
Download the survey results here [PDF]
A year on and people still don’t know what the Government is going to do.
— Donatello (@Donatello_Oz) February 20, 2023
The NSW Gov has failed the Northern Rivers.
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